A statewide association is working to help ranchers in Oregon recover from wildfires that threatened both their cattle and feed for their animals. Researchers in Alaska hope their project produces new grain opportunities. And legislation in another state takes on cultivated meat.
Northwest Fires
The Oregon Cattlemen’s Association has started a fund to help ranchers after wildfires scorched more than a million and a half acres in the state so far. Eastern Oregon suffered the worst of the fires.
Mark McElligott, the president of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, said the state has never endured wildfires this severe. Ranchers have lost cattle, pastureland for grazing, or both.
Cattle that survived have to be moved to areas where the pastureland was not destroyed by flames. And the recovery will take a while. McElligot said that it could take a year or two for the grass to grow back. Some surviving cattle were also burned in the wildfires.
Expanding Grains
Alaska may be known for its seafood. Salmon, halibut, and king crab are world-renowned. Berries prosper there, too. Wild berries like salmonberries, mossberries, blueberries, and lingonberries thrive. And local foods like reindeer sausage, fry bread (traditional Alaska Native food), and Muktuk (frozen whale skin and blubber) provide opportunities.
Some researchers want to add more grains to the menu for farmland owners and producers.
Researchers at the Fairbanks Experiment Farm at the University of Alaska Fairbanks have begun the Small Grains Project. And it is harvesting time.
Oat, barley, spring wheat, and canola are all part of the trial. Researchers track how long they take to grow and measure their level of quality.
Protein content is also a key ingredient for the study. Researchers know that growers around the world look for new ways to meet the global appetite.
KTVF-TV in Fairbanks, Alaska, profiled the researchers and explained how they are tracking the progress of the emerging grains. Watch that story here.
Out of the Lab
Scientists and academics believe that cultivated protein – also known as lab meat – can be an environmentally and financially sustainable method to develop more protein sources for the world’s population. However, production also presents a potential competitive threat to livestock producers.
A Michigan legislator has joined colleagues in other states pushing legislation that would ban cultivated meat from being sold in his state.
The Good Food Institute defines cultivated meat like this: “Cultivated meat, also known as cultured meat, is genuine animal meat (including seafood and organ meats) that is produced by cultivating animal cells directly. This production method eliminates the need to raise and farm animals for food. Cultivated meat is made of the same cell types that can be arranged in the same or similar structure as animal tissues, thus replicating the sensory and nutritional profiles of conventional meat.”
State Representative Jim DeSana, who sponsored the legislation in Michigan, is also a cattle, sheep, and chicken farmer.
His legislation follows action by lawmakers in states like Ohio, Florida, and Nebraska that targets cultivated meat.
